Cryptic's Online Community Rep has a Twitter page fwiw. It's not all about CO, but most of it is. I find it amusing he's trying to get into LOTRO and says he's "a failure" at getting addicted to MMOs. Ironic, no? http://twitter.com/Cryptic_Daeke

Well, crap, I gotta get prepped for work and no signs of the open beta stuff opening up at Fileplanet. I'll keep checking until about 10 a.m. EST>

SSJ told me yesterday that apparently the devs dont want us to post the direct link to people, even if it is username and password-covered =/. We just tell them to go to the link that is sent to their email.

So if you were in closed beta, check your e-mails. That question probably came up at some point at the forum for closed beta testers.

I've been in a couple closed betas in the past (I guess it's OK now to admit one was the now deceased "Auto Assault"), and I think usually you have had to download a new open beta client (it wasn't just "closed beta client + a patch"). But Atari/Cryptic may do things differently.

I guess maybe Cryptic/Atari wants to wait until it's after quitting time on the West Coast or something. So I'll bet maybe around 5-6 p.m. Pacific Time is when they will unleash the open beta hellhounds.

I used to do that when I was doing holiday scheduling for my call center. I knew the griping would start as soon as they were posted, so I made sure that it was the last thing I did after working on them so the flood of complaints would have to wait at least 16 hours before they got back to me.

I don't feel like digging through 9 pages of this thread, but I could swear someone was saying how different CO was from CoH/X. A little birdy who just ran the tutorial today seemed to indicate the exact opposite, that the game felt tremendously like CoH/X, at least at the outset. Curious.

Half the world dismisses every medieval/fantasy MMO as "another WoW clone," (often people say that based on seeing a screenshot or on their experience at Level 1 in the game) so I don't expect it to be any different for any super hero MMOs after CoX. Remind your birdy that you get a travel power in CO at 5, instead of at 20; that should excite him...

I hate to break it to you, but the first City of Heroes clone was City of Villains (something Emmert has of late been admitting in interviews -- that CoV was rushed, and became more of a "COH clone" than he had hoped).

Most of the media folks who are allowed to talk say CO does play quite a bit differently at the nuts and bolts level (it doesn't seem to be the hotkey-tray-fest that most MMOs are). Given that Emmert led both game's dev teams (there are only one or two devs, afik, that worked on both games though), it wouldn't surprise me to see some similarities in the costume creator and some of the powers/powersets. I put in more than 3 years on CoX, and my Mission Architect experience made me feel it was both the most amazing creation in MMO history, and that it almost all but destroyed the game (it became City of Mission Architect Centers, and City of "malpheaseants trying desperately to find new exploits in Mission Architect every day). So if CO proves to be "different but similar," that may be just the ticket for me.

Anyway, I'm not in closed beta and have nothing to go on but what I read. Starting Aug. 17 though, I'll know for sure. Until then, all I can do is huddle under a blanket with my flashlight yelling, "Stop HATING on Champions Online! It's gonna be awesome!"

Actually, my birdy really enjoyed the short time he tried CO, and was a big fan of CoH/X series as well - he was just surprised that they felt so similar (even combat) when he thought he had read the exact opposite. He definitely didn't get the feel it was too console-ish. But again, all this based on less than an hour.

Don't get too excited, no playtest until Friday. I got my key on Monday, got it all downloaded and patched and the only playtest has been 10a-2p pacific today, while I was at work. The patcher is nice.

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It was this moment that took the movie from being a little ho-hum to “holy shit, did that shark just eat a plane!?”

I'm finally preloading, Fileplanet's quite sprightly at the moment. UPDATE: The file is actually 1.8GB, so I guess the remainder you still need to download on or close to Aug. 17 (yeah, there's a message to finish downloading the file and unlock it on Aug. 17).

My understanding is that there are 5 very expansive zones so far, many instances within the zones [not including the Tutorial], and lots of space "between" the zones. I still can't quite wrap my head around it, so let's let the forum-ites speak...

You have 5 big zones:Millenium City,The Canadian WastelandThe DesertMonster IslandLemuria.

Each of this Zones start with a small, restricted Area, called "Crisis Zone"; where you have to solve a crisis. After which the whole zone becomes free to explore. Traveling here is seamless.

A loading screen only occurs when you a) switch the big zones, or b) enter a lair or smaller instance (LIke caves, labs, prisons) inside the big zone.

But traveling in the big zone alone is seamless.........But what I CAN tell you and leave you alive is: Canada, and the CIty, and the Desert, and Monster Island, and especially Lemuria are really, really, really, very, very, very far away from each other. There's a LOT of space between them!...........You take an aircraft between Canada, the Desert, Monster Island, and Millennium City. You must take a submarine to get to Lemuria. I would imagine that once Bases are in there will be Teleporters.

=====================On the "order of stages," I found this thread kinda helpful...

Stage 1: Tutorial, which can be skipped after the first time you play it.Stage 2: Either Canada Crisis or Desert CrisisStage 3: If you went to Canada Crisis you go into Open Canada. if you went into Desert Crisis you go into Open Desert. From that point you can switch between Open Desert or Open Canada it will.Stage 4: Open Millennium CityStage 5: Monster Island Crisis or Lemuria Crisis. You can do one or both.Stage 6:Open Monster Island and/or Open Lemuria after you do the Crisis Zones

Now you may say "OMG! I WANNA DO ALL THE CRISIS! ALL THE OPENS! GAWD!!!! THIS IS A RIPOFF!!!! I'M WRITING MY CONGRESSMAN!!!!!" I think though the idea in theory is that you can have a little bit of a fresh take with each alt by simply choosing different crisis zones or open zones in those junctions listed. It's early, things change, maybe if the feedback on it is all negative, they'll change that and... "SHUT UP! I CAN'T BELIEVE I PREORDERED THIS CRAP!!! AAAAAAAA!!!!"... Oh well. I tried...

And before you go "OMG! I'll finish that in 3 days! Why did I get a lifetime subscription! WHAT WAS I THINKING???? AAAAAAAAAAAAIeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!" (really, you, dear reader, need to lay off the caffeine! ) and jump out the nearest window, my understanding is that the "open" areas are quite large. I just don't know what "quite large" means.

There's also much hand-wringing about some crisis zones not be repeatable, but to me, if there's so little to do in the game that you have to do things like that over and over to be entertained, then Champions isn't something I'm going to sign up long-term for.

*This Massively piece talks about the Desert Crisis zone a bit and touches on zone sizes...

Once we dug our way out, the full enormity of the Desert zone lay before us like a majestic land of wonder and opportunity. Actual zones in Champions Online are huge, and if you were worried about constant instancing, well, rest assured knowing you'll be very happy to have a travel power by the tender level of five.

I can speak from 3+ years of CoX experience that I think even the "old" Cryptic would tell you it's better to have a few expansive, fun, tightly designed zones than to have a boatload of zones, with many that aren't fun or that players simply don't want to play in (COH was full of wacky zones that seemed cool on paper, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone wanting to play them much; some of those got really nice re-designs years after launch, some never got any serious revamp at all).

This isn't to pick on CoX at all. It's to say since Emmert was the lead guy on COH, it stands to reason he learned some hard lessons in working on it, esp. for its 2004 launch, so hopefully his current team is putting some of those lessons to good use. Maybe one was to do fewer, better zones rather than quantity at launch. Or maybe I'm just naive.

If you're thinking about a cleverly obscene nickname for your character for Champions, think again... It's obnoxiously long so I folded it within Spoiler code:

Spoiler for Hiden:

(a) Rules Related to Usernames. When you choose a character name, or otherwise create a label that can be seen by other players playing the Game, you must abide by the following guidelines as well as the rules of common decency. If Cryptic finds such a label to be offensive or improper, or believes such username is or may be illegal, it may, in its sole and absolute discretion, refuse to grant you the username, change the username, remove the label and corresponding chat room, and/or suspend or terminate your use of the Game. In particular, you may not use any name:

(i) Belonging to another individual or entity with the intent to impersonate that individual or entity, including without limitation, impersonating any Cryptic agent or employee or any other Cryptic community user;

(ii) That incorporates vulgar language or which are otherwise offensive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

(iii) That is subject to the rights of any other person or entity without written authorization from that person or entity;

(iv) That belongs to a popular culture figure, celebrity or media personality;

(v) That is, contains, or is substantially similar to a trademark or service mark, whether registered or not, or may otherwise cause confusion;

(vi) Belonging to any religious figure or deity;

(vii) Taken from Champions products, including character names from the Champions role-playing game and other Champions products and media;

You may not use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the name restrictions listed above, nor can you have a “first” and “last” name that, when combined, violate the above name restrictions.

Lordy. Just imagine the legal crap that the DC Comics MMO will have to include.

Interesting - no General or King or whatever names? Those are allowed in CoX last time I checked. Of course, you need things like that because is rather difficult to find a free name nowadays.

In CO, you can have duplicate names on different accounts. In other words, there can be a thousand people named Bob in the world at once, as long as each Bob is on a different account. So there's no 'name camping' and such at all.

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"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

I may dig up some of my COH names. It is/was the name of my Martial Arts/Regen scrapper. I saw this very funny COH fan video once where a guy was doing a parody riff on how impossible it was to use the name you really wanted, and then you'd try something completely stupid because nothing remotely cool would ever be available. I remember trying something like like 25 variations on Freeze, Frozen, Ice, etc. for my ice blaster and finally just typed "Igloo" and that ended up working.

The first toon I got anywhere with was an assault rifle/devices blaster patterned after the Crusader: No Remorse/No Regret games. I inadvertently mispelled the name "Crusasder" which probably helped protect me from the "name police," but everyone called me "Crusader," so it worked.

You open up the build screen by pressing the “B” key. Within this window you’ll see a number of elements that can be associated with each build as described below:

* Role – A dropdown menu allows you to select which of the roles you want to associate with a given build, as described above. Switching between these roles will also add a small graphical element to the left side of your power tray depending on whether you’re in an offensive, defensive or support role.

* Powers – Each build allows you to alter the layout of your powers on the power bar. To do so, open your power window by pressing “P” on your keyboard, and then simply drag and drop your powers in the order you’d like associated with a given build.

* Passive Powers – Unlike most powers, passive powers are associated with specific roles which will be indicated by a small icon on the bottom left of the main power listing. As the name implies, these are powers that grant some form of benefit simply by being slotted, though you can only have one of these active per build. Examples of passive powers include things like Regeneration, sorcery Auras or martial arts Focus powers.

* Blocking Powers – As with passive powers, you can also slot one block power per build. These greatly enhance the inherent benefits of blocking during combat, typically providing additional boosts to resistance of certain damage types. Block powers are easy to overlook when purchasing new powers, but they can really save your bacon when faced with overwhelming odds in both PvE and PvP situations.

* Travel Powers – While you’ll be using your primary travel power through most of the game, a second travel power becomes available at level 35 [did not know that-bj] which can then be associated with your various builds.

* Upgrades and Devices – You can also select exactly which upgrades and devices you want to use with a given build, which can be handy if you want to shift the focus of your stats to better fit with the role you’ve selected. To do so, press the “I” key to open your inventory and then slot the items you want associated with your build as you normally would. This itemization layout will then be associated with your new build, but keep in mind that you’ll need to keep enough open inventory space for these items to land when switching between builds unless you use the same items for each build you create.

* Costume – As you open up additional costume slots, you can select which of them you want to associate with a given build as well. This opens up some pretty cool possibilities; for example you might have a defensive build focused on Unarmed skills but then decide you want to “Hulk-out” (or in this case I suppose that should be “Grond-out”) and switch to a Might-focused offensive build with a costume change that increases the overall size, skin tone or even full costume of your character. There’s loads of possibilities for how you can approach this, so be creative!

* Name – Now that you’ve selected what elements will define your new build, you can give it a name which can either be something descriptive, or simply something fun; it’s really up to you.

I've so wanted something like this in LOTRO in its traits system -- the ability to save a set of say 6-7 traits, and then be able to switch quickly to that combination with a click (even if its pricey). Instead, it seems like you have to slot/unslot everything individually, and it's not something I can easily do quickly to adjust myself to a group's needs.

Being able to associate a costume with a build sounds awesome. I can see people getting very creative with this feature.

Having a couple travel powers is going to be nice. Right now there are some annoying side effects of some travel powers. For example, superjump can be annoying indoors when you'll just hit your head on the ceiling all the time, but acrobatics is awesome indoors. Flying is a huge advantage outdoors as can be expected.

I'll let one obvious detail leak since its probably mentioned in some of these articles. Changing build has a cooldown. Its pretty long so its not like you're gonna open every fight in offensive role for an alpha strike and then switch to defensive. More likely, you'll pick a role and only switch occasionally, maybe when you enter or leave an instance.

I'm really tempted by the lifetime offer due to the specials, but realistically I think only the 6-month makes sense. I don't think I've ever played a single MMORPG long enough to warrant a lifetime fee, even including DAOC which I went back to about 5 times. Still, there's the Mirror costume and 8 extra slots....

We are also offering two exclusive subscription packages, available only until September 1st.

Now of course that sounds like something out of the Lethal Weapon movies [is it 1-2-on 3? Or 1-2-3 then GO!]. So I don't know if "until Sept. 1" means the offer ends at 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 31, or if it means Sept. 1 is the last day the two options are offered. I might even ask that on official forums if something hasn't already addressed it there.

I certainly would've gotten my money's worth if I'd done it with LOTRO before launch in 2007, but I didn't go for it (I went with the $9.99 special intro mo. pricing instead) until Turbine brought back the $199.99 option for the Moria expansion. And I certainly would've gotten my money's worth for COH (I probably put in at least 3 years of steady time on the game, and a few months here and there on re-visits since 2007).

If I even remotely like the open beta I can see myself doing the $59.99 6-mo. option, and getting to peek at STO early (even if I couldn't talk about it) would be fun. To me the only real lure of lifetime is the 8 extra slots, but I'm not a big alt-itis guy. I have maybe 3-4 LOTRO characters that I really have gotten into, and the rest are sort of "test-alts." Not including COV characters, I had 6-7 COH heroes I loved to play, and the rest on other servers were experiments.

Some people also just look at lifetime as freedom from worry about your character names being taken if you're away awhile, and you don't have to worry about deciding whether to cancel a subscription when you stop playing for a while. I don't know if that's worth taking such a lump sum lightly, but that's sort of what I like about my LOTRO lifetime, even if it hasn't "paid off" technically, as of yet.

I'm going for lifetime. My reasoning is, it is money already spent. Meaning, I can justify it with my wife I can tell her that the game is paid for, so, the $15 month I would have been spending, I can spend on something else Also, if for some reason I lose my job ( can never tell any more ), as long as I can pay for the internet, I can play an MMO.

LoTRO paid for itself. My two TiVos paid for themselves. I'm hoping this will at least pay for itself.

But you haven't played it even one second yet! What if you HATE it? What if you play it 10 minutes and decide "This is the WORST game in the history of MMOs! In gaming ever! This game is so bad, I'm never going to play another game ever! I'm scarred for life!" I mean, the Jack Emmert Benevolent Cash Fund will love you, but stilll....

Everyone seems to think they'll go out this week, or as late as Aug. 14. It really doesn't matter as long as it's before the open beta starts Aug. 17, I guess. That doesn't anyone at Amazon support will have a clue, however.

Some people also just look at lifetime as freedom from worry about your character names being taken if you're away awhile,

But remember, in CO, this doesn't happen - character names are tied to your account, not the server. So in theory, you could have a Bob convention where everybody is called Bob, but the game has you all different as you're technically called Bob@accountname.

Quote from: Blackjack on August 06, 2009, 06:37:37 PM

But you haven't played it even one second yet! What if you HATE it? What if you play it 10 minutes and decide "This is the WORST game in the history of MMOs! In gaming ever! This game is so bad, I'm never going to play another game ever! I'm scarred for life!" I mean, the Jack Emmert Benevolent Cash Fund will love you, but stilll....

At that point you sell the account online to somebody else who wants a lifetime sub.

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"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

But you haven't played it even one second yet! What if you HATE it? What if you play it 10 minutes and decide "This is the WORST game in the history of MMOs! In gaming ever! This game is so bad, I'm never going to play another game ever! I'm scarred for life!" I mean, the Jack Emmert Benevolent Cash Fund will love you, but stilll....

Your poll is what we "expect" to go for....I expect to go for the Lifetime, but that may not be what I end up going for

But remember, in CO, this doesn't happen - character names are tied to your account, not the server. So in theory, you could have a Bob convention where everybody is called Bob, but the game has you all different as you're technically called Bob@accountname.

Can I have a Blackjack Convention?But then everyone's gonna think it's a card game event.

Oh darn, Crag, I better change "expects" to "you swear on a stack of Bibles 200 feet high that you WILL go for so-and-so subscription" Aw I'm just being silly. If the open beta phase blows me away, I could see myself doing the lifetime thing. I just wish open B wasn't starting on a Monday (Tuesdays are my tough days at work and I can't really do an all-nighter Mondays).

Hey I was looking through Ten Ton Hammers' "Crisis in Canada Survival Guide." Don't read it if you don't want to know about the various quests/missions, but it lists quite a few and gives me a much better idea of the types of stuff you'll be doing in the game...

Nothing looks like Rocket Science, but a couple sound reasonably fun to me... (spoilered, I know not everybody wants to know this kinda stuff in advance of release/open beta play)

Spoiler for Hiden:

[5] Free From Debris

CONTACT: Automatically offered near the Ordeal of Oceanica 408 quest objectivesQUEST TYPE: RescueOBJECTIVES: Free crash survivors trapped by debris (5)DETAILS: Numerous passengers have been trapped under the wreckage from the downed Oceanica flight. To rescue them, you’ll first need to defeat any ice demons in the area before lifting or destroying the debris to free the passengers. Once you’ve freed all 5, head back to Steelhead and speak to Justicar for a sizable XP reward.

------------------------------------[7] Passengers in Permafrost

CONTACT: JusticarQUEST TYPE: Rescue / Device InteractionOBJECTIVES: Use the Hypothermiac Laser to thaw out Oceanica passengers that have been encased in ice by demons (5)DETAILS: This will be similar to the other rescue missions you’ve completed so far, but with a twist. First, you’ll need to defeat any ice demons surrounding the frozen passengers (otherwise they interrupt the thawing process), and then you’ll need to use the device Justicar gives you to thaw each passenger. To do so, target the block of ice and then activate the device on your hotbar. Once all 5 passengers have been rescued, return to Justicar at Steelhead for your reward.

The other thing I'd be concerned about for the Lifetime buy is what if the game, in spite of how much I personally like it and/or having a big name behind it, just doesn't do well (Tabula Rasa anyone?)? Now Cryptic has a decent track record and CoH has set a good standard for superhero MMORPGs, but it's hard to tell these days who will survive and for how long. Coincidentally the only lifetime sub I ever did was with.... drum roll, Hellgate London! And now I'm back again with Bill Roper lol.

If you want to get lifetime option, do you need to preorder the game now? Is it possible to register and pay for the lifetime but then wait for the release data to buy it from Steam or other downloadable option?

The other thing I'd be concerned about for the Lifetime buy is what if the game, in spite of how much I personally like it and/or having a big name behind it, just doesn't do well (Tabula Rasa anyone?)? Now Cryptic has a decent track record and CoH has set a good standard for superhero MMORPGs, but it's hard to tell these days who will survive and for how long. Coincidentally the only lifetime sub I ever did was with.... drum roll, Hellgate London! And now I'm back again with Bill Roper lol.

Bill, afik, is basically the "marketing mouthpiece" (he has a more graceful title, but I think there's a reason Bill is doing the weekly updates, not Emmert -- Bill's probably more graceful at communications stuff; but he's clearly not CEO material ) for Champs and probably helps a bit with game balancing-brainstorming in-house. He joined Cryptic very late in the game. If the game fails, or is a mess, we can pin that on Jack Emmert and his new team, not Mr. Roper. Bill by all accounts is very happy to be focused on games, and talking to fans and media, instead of trying to be Mr. CEO Of Hot Startup Company.

To some extent you really do learn more from failures (I quit a job once after 2 months, I've been laid off twice - by the same company, etc.). I don't think Bill R's going to rush out to form a hot new gaming startup w/ venture capital bucks again any time soon. I can certainly understand why Hellgaters would feel like "history repeats itself" when Bill talks about CO adding this or that down the road, though. I just think any CO financial troubles that might crop up aren't anything he has any control over, this time.

All that said, I voted for the 6-month thing. I don't think I need 8 additional slots off the bat (you can earn some in-game is my understanding), or a "mirror ST costume" that they don't seem willing to show people before Sept. 1. Getting in the closed STO beta would be fun, I think, and hopefully Cryptic/Atari would re-introduce lifetime down the road if there were a paid expansion for CO. By that time, I'd probably know for sure if CO was a long term-relationship or a brief fling.

I'm reasonably certain that Champions Online will last as long as Auto Assault (which is about the shortest lived, "full price monthly fee" MMO I can think of), which went from about April 11, 2006 to Aug. 31, 2007. That's 15-16 months, so a $199 lifetime there (it wasn't offered, I'm just hypothesizing) would've worked out to some extent. If you got, say, 14 months beyond the free included month, it would be around $209 worth of play.